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Hingham Police Department News

Reminder of Residents Losing Money in Scams

Reminder after several residents scammed out of money last several weeks. Please share with relatives, especially the senior population.

An 83 year old woman received a call that her “grandson” had been arrested and needed bail money. She followed the callers’ instructions and purchased $5,000 worth of Home Depot gift cards. She then gave them the cards numbers and codes over the phone.

An 88 year old woman received a call that a relative had been arrested and she needed to send money to “resolve” his case. The woman followed the callers’ instructions and sent $8,000 in cash (in 5 separate envelopes with $1,600 each) to an address in New York overnight. The following day they called and send she needed to send an additional $8,000 overnight. She then realized it was a scam.

A 64 year old woman went onto a web site to renew a subscription and a window opened with a phone number to call about her computer being infected with a virus. She called the number and they offered to fix her computer remotely. She gave them access to her computer. She followed their directions and purchased $2,100 worth of gift Google Play, iTunes and Best Buy gift cards. She took photos of the card numbers and codes and sent to the scammers. She was on the phone intermittently for over 4 hours during this scam.

These are just some of the more common scams know of the “Grandparent Scam”, the “Arrested Relative” and the “Microsoft Security” scam. In all these scams, the callers will either ask to remain on the line or warn them not to tell anyone that they are sending money. These are not new scams, they have been reported to us repeatedly for over 7 years.